Auto News by Sidhartha

Finance minister Piyush Goyal in an interview said, "Mr Chidambaram used the interim budget to give incentives to rich people and to help the industry. Can SUV and mid-segment and large cars be called a benefit to the common man? We have tried to see how we can take benefits to the new middle class." He added that no norms have been violated in the interim budget.

The new return was devised after adverse feedback from trade and industry, which complained of severe compliance burden imposed by a three-stage filing process. The revamped form will require fewer stages of filing.

The reprieve from sanctions will come as a booster for the government as it is expected to help ease the pressure on crude prices. The elections are likely to will be held in May next year. The continuous rise in global crude prices that pushed up retail fuel prices to a record high piled pressure on the government.

The commerce department is sensing an opportunity for exporters in the US due to the trade war with China and has identified close to 180 items where Indian players can take advantage of the opportunity that has opened up due to higher duties on Chinese products.

You can blame businesses for tax evasion but not for tax planning. Within hours of the GST Council reducing rates on 88 items, companies and tax consultants have got down to look at ways on how to make the best use of the mechanism to protect their margins, while staying on the right side of law to avoid anti-profiteering action.

Sources said the proposal for oil companies to hedge their bets was part of the plan based on experience in other countries. The plan entails paying a premium to cushion the impact above or below a certain level.

Having decided to turn down frivolous concerns raised by investigative agencies, the government has put in place a detailed protocol for clearing all FDI proposals as part of an exercise to speed up approvals and bring about greater transparency.

The biggest threat to the deadline-based approach prescribed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has come in the form of a legal interpretation that court battles are outside the 270-day deadline prescribed by the law, something that the government is grappling with to find a solution.

The Centre and most other states are in favour of the plan as it is seen as a tool that will encourage use of non-cash modes — at least for smaller transactions — and the government realising more revenue.

The government has opted to ignore petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s repeated plea to bring petrol and diesel within the ambit of goods and services tax and decided to put the plan on the backburner, arguing that the time is not ripe for the change.

Sources said that detailed discussions have been held in the commerce department. Former officials dealing with WTO were also consulted on the issue. While a section believes that there is a case for a strong response, another view in the government is to wait for other WTO members to move the dispute settlement body so that India can then join in.

Dheeraj Hinduja, chairman at India’s second largest truck maker Ashok Leyland, prefers a low profile, but with managing director Vinod Dasari leaving at the end of the month, he says he’s become more “hands-on”.